Friday, December 9, 2016

Georgia Police Officers Both Die After Shooting,The suspect killed himself inside a home after a standoff with police.

Since high school Nick Smarr and Jody Smith had been
inseparable – roommates after graduation; classmates at the police academy in
Georgia; and best friends who, at the end of every goodbye, said the words “I
love you.”

They spent their free time cackling at inside jokesonly they found funny and competitively comparing cop notes: who did more work,
who answered more calls, who was the better police officer. When Smith set his
wedding date for May 20 of 2017, he asked Smarr to be his best man.

It was for all these reason that their families
weren’t surprised to learn that on Wednesday morning, in what would become
their final act as officers and men, Smarr and Smith were together.

At 9:30 a.m., Smarr, an Americus Police officer, was
called to check out a domestic dispute at an apartment near Georgia
Southwestern State University. Smith, a campus officer there, overheard the
radio chatter and decided, despite the fact that other Americus, Georgia,
officers were en route, to “backup his friend,” Americus Police Chief Mark
Scott said at a press conference.

What happened next was captured on body camera
footage, authorities said, and narrated in a Facebook post by Smarr’s uncle,
Michael Waters, who confirmed the details with The Washington Post.

The two drove up separately. Smith swept around the
back of the apartment while Smarr approached the slightly ajar front door,
according to the online post. Smarr heard commotion inside, called out and
entered, where he found a suspect he “immediately recognized,” the post said, a
career criminal authorities identified as Minquell Lembrick. Also there was a
woman and child, the victims from the domestic call, police said.

The man fled out the backdoor, Waters wrote, and
Smarr followed. The suspect shot at the officers, striking both in the head
before leaving the property, authorities said.

After shooting at the suspect, Smarr ran to Smith,
according to the post, rolled him onto his back and performed CPR “until he
could no longer.”

When backup officers arrived, they found the wounded
men laying in the backyard – Smarr slumped over his best friend.

Smarr died soon after, authorities said, and Smith
was airlifted to a Macon, Georgia, hospital where, on Thursday, he died, too.

“Nick’s best friend is now in heaven with him,” a
family member said on Facebook.

Of Smarr’s decision to administer CPR, his long term
girlfriend, Rachel Harrod, said: “Never been more proud to call someone mine.”

At a press conference, Chief Scott said the two men
were “model officers” and “heroes.”

“I can’t say enough about them,” he said. “. . .
They were there together, they were there together through it. And even after
the shooting they were together.”

Police continued to search for Lembrick, the man
accused of fatally shooting Smarr and Smith, and finally located him 24 hours
later when a man phoned a law enforcement tip line and said he was hiding in a
house in Americus. Officers, including the SWAT team, responded immediately.

As they set up a perimeter, Scott said they heard
what sounded like a gunshot from inside. For an hour, negotiators tried to coax
the suspect out, but eventually used a robot to open the door, where officers
found Lembrick dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Lembrick was a “career criminal” with a rap sheet 32
pages long, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan said at a
press conference. At the time of the shooting, he was wanted for kidnapping and
other charges, Scott told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. When asked by a
reporter if Lembrick shouldn’t have been on the street, Keenan balked.

“I don’t pass judgments on the criminal justice
system,” he said. “I just know that he was a convicted felon in possession of a
firearm and he wreaked havoc on this community.”

News of Lembrick’s death broke just hours before
authorities confirmed that Smith had also died.

After graduating from the police academy, both Smith
and Smarr began their law enforcement careers with the Sumter County Sheriff’s
Office. Where Smith’s mother, Sgt.
Sharron Johnson, is also employed, before transferring to other agencies and
eventually both landing back in Americus, Ga.

On Facebook Wednesday morning, Smith’s mother posted
a photo of her and her son from four years ago, both in uniform, with the
caption: “The love of my life!!!!”

Smith and his fiancee, Sarah Smarr (not a relation
of Officer Smarr), were supposed to get married on May 20, Nick Smarr’s
girlfriend, Rachel Harrod, told The Washington Post. Both Smith and his fiancee
were students at Georgia Southwestern State University.

Harrod said the two couples would often go on double
dates and most recently carpooled to a string of weddings among friends from
Smarr and Smith’s high school.

Harrod, a nursing student, met Smarr a year and a
half ago after she moved to Americus for nursing school. At first, she found
him arrogant and boastful, exuding a bravado she found unattractive. But upon a
second meeting, Harrod uncovered details about Smarr that made her melt: His
love of Disney movies, like “Hercules” and “The Lion King.” His adoration for
his nieces and nephews. His preference for domestic calls over writing traffic
tickets because, she said, he liked to help.

“He just had the biggest heart of anyone I ever met.
He was just looking for a way to help people in ways they couldn’t help
themselves,” Harrod told The Washington Post. “I do know that his love for
policing didn’t come from wanting to necessarily punish bad people. It was to
help good people.”

And the friendship he shared with Smith was so
fierce, Harrod said, that those closest to them at times found it irritating.

“I almost hated going places with the two of them,”
she joked. “I’ve never met two men who loved each other like they did.”

Smarr’s uncle told The Post nothing exemplified that
more than their final acts.

Smith coming for backup.

Officer Smarr ignored his own injuries, to try and
save his friend.

“He continued this until his last breath,” Waters
said of his nephew. “That is true love for your family and friends. That is who
Nick was and how he will be remembered.”